Author: Alice Feeney
Publisher: Flatiron Books/Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Format: Audio ALC
Narrator: Katherine Press;
Stephanie Racine
Length: 9 hrs 21 mins
Date of Publication: August 29, 2023
Rating: 5 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things.
Our Queen of Twists, bestselling author of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors Alice Feeney, returns with another thrilling mystery filled with drama and her trademark surprises.
Twenty years after a baby is stolen from a stroller, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.
Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.
Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good.
With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.
In the style of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors, Good Bad Girl is a thriller in which nobody can be trusted and the twists come fast and furious.
“People say there’s nothing like a mother’s love. Take that away, you’ll find there’s nothing like a daughter’s hate.”
“I wish my daughter would disappear.”
“When you lose a child, you see them everywhere forever.”
Alice Feeney delivers yet another spellbinding psychological thriller with Good Bad Girl, a story packed with complicated and dysfunctional women, tangled motives, and more than a few deliciously disorienting twists.
At the center of the novel is Frankie, a woman who has learned to survive the life she was born into by sheer determination. She calls herself a “good bad girl”. A woman doing the best she can despite the circumstances and the internal battles she fights daily. Her OCD shapes almost every decision she makes, creating a constant push and pull between what she wants and what her mind will allow.
Then there’s Clio, whose strained relationship with her mother, Edith, adds an emotional layer that simmers throughout the book. Edith resents being placed in a nursing home, a decision she blames entirely on Clio. But once there, she forms an unexpected bond with a staff member named Patience, yet another character whose role unfolds with increasing intrigue.
As I am definitely an Alice Feeney fan, I love how she delivers each and every one of her books. This book is a perfect example of what we can expect from her. The beauty of Feeney’s storytelling lies in how she makes us question everyone. Frankie, Clio, Patience. Are any of them truly reliable? The shifting truths and subtle misdirections keep you guessing from start to finish.
Feeney has earned her reputation as the “Queen of Twists,” and Good, Bad Girl is a prime example of why. The title itself is an oxymoron, and that contradiction sets the tone for a novel filled with a high level of suspense and as well as being full of twists.
Smartly written and impossible to predict, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves psychological suspense served with heart, depth, and Feeney’s signature flair for surprise. The bonus for me was the dual narration given to the voice of each of the characters.
Many thanks to Flatiron Books/Macmillan Audio and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Alice Feeney is a New York Times million-copy bestselling author. Her books have been translated into over thirty-five languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Including His & Hers which is being made into major TV series by Netflix.
Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in Devon with her family.
Beautiful Ugly is her seventh novel.
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